106-058 Scandal, Sex and Sentiment

Usually 25 points of first year English, see Prerequisites or first year women's studies, see Prerequisites.

This subject identifies the beginnings of the English novel in the scandal writings of the late 17th century, and traces their role in constructing discourses of sexuality and sentiment throughout the first half of the eighteenth century. Social, cultural and economic constituents of the public sphere and print culture will be examined, as will popular, romance and pornographic components of the bourgeois novel. Students who complete this subject will be familiar with current theories about the construction of subjectivity, sexuality and sentiment in this genre, and will have developed their own critical readings of a range of late 17th and early 18th century English texts.

• be able to apply new research skills and critical methods to a field of inquiry;

• develop critical self-awareness and shape and strengthen persuasive arguments;

• be able to communicate arguments and ideas effectively and articulately both in writing and to others.

A text-based exercise of 1000 words 25% (due mid-semester) and an essay of 3000 words 75% (due at the end of semester).

A subject reader with contextual and critical material will be available from the University Bookshop.

• Aphra Behn, Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister. Penguin.
• Delarivier Manley, The New Atlantis. Penguin.
• E Haywood, Love in Excess. Broadview.
• D Defoe, Moll Flanders. Worlds Classics.
• S Richardson, Pamela. Houghton Mifflin.
• H Fielding, Joseph Andrews. Broadview.
• J Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Worlds Classics.
• C Lennox, The Female Quixote. Worlds Classics.